Kenneth Dale Anderson II, 35, a custodian at Hidden Oak Elementary School, faces multiple felony charges after Gainesville police said he ran a red light, fled into a daycare and injured an officer during a traffic stop. Police say a search of the vehicle turned up a stolen handgun, an extended magazine and several suspected illegal drugs.
According to the Alachua Chronicle, a Gainesville police officer stopped Anderson after he allegedly ran a red light at SE 3rd Avenue and SE Hawthorne Road. The vehicle reportedly stopped near a daycare in the 1700 block of SE Hawthorne Road, where a police K-9 alerted officers to possible illegal substances inside.
The report says Anderson then used the daycare's door code to enter the building and tried to get away. Police allege that he shut the door on an officer's arm, causing severe bruising and other injury, before officers took him to the ground and handcuffed him.
What Was Found Inside the Vehicle
According to the report, officers found a Taurus G3C handgun with an extended magazine in the vehicle. The firearm had been reported stolen in Columbia County in 2022. The same bag reportedly contained 1.0 grams of powdered amphetamines, one MDMA pill, three amphetamine pills and one Suboxone pill.
What public records show about school screening and police activity
The district's publicly posted employment procedures address hiring prerequisites rather than every rule governing current staff. According to Alachua County Public Schools, employment is contingent on a negative drug test, fingerprint submission and criminal-history clearance, among other requirements. The cited procedures do not by themselves spell out specific weapons prohibitions or disciplinary procedures for custodians. For broader scale, the Gainesville Police Department's 2023 annual report says the department responded to 96,366 calls for service and produced 18,424 incident and crash reports that year. The report also says GPD's K-9 teams are regularly used to detect narcotics, assist with apprehensions, locate missing people and provide backup. Those figures describe the department's overall workload but do not, by themselves, establish a trend in weapons or drug incidents or provide a school-specific safety comparison.
The report says Anderson told officers he was authorized to clean the building and opened the door to show that he had access. He did not admit trying to lock himself inside to evade police.
Conflicting Accounts Over the Vehicle and the Drugs
Anderson reportedly told officers that his mother rented the vehicle for him and that only the two of them drove it, although the rental agreement was in his name. He later suggested his mother might have allowed someone else to use it and denied knowing about the firearm or drugs. His mother told officers that she rented the vehicle for Anderson and that only she and her son drove it.
The Alachua Chronicle's report also notes that Anderson has one prior non-violent felony conviction. The outlet's account does not specify how officers reconciled the differing statements about who had access to the vehicle.
Charges and School District Response
Anderson was charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a controlled substance, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence. Florida Statutes §784.071 addresses assault or battery offenses involving law enforcement officers. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $140,000.
The School Board of Alachua County confirmed that Anderson was a custodian at Hidden Oak Elementary and said he would be placed on leave. The charges are allegations, and Anderson is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
